Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

young's hill

KOMO 4 News Story

by

Here’s the link to the Seattle KOMO 4 News story that aired tonight: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Chimpanzees-survive-close-call-with-Cle-Elum-wildfire-168549526.html

Eric Johnson and videographer Eric Jensen did a great job with this story and we were so glad to have them out again today.

I should admit that J.B. dreamed up and built Young’s Hill. I did encourage him… and I helped by setting a few fence posts, along with dozens of volunteers. And the sanctuary itself was started by Keith LaChappelle and a team of people who came together to make it possible.

Thanks to everyone for continuing to support the journey of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees. Everyone who has supported us over the years is part of the sanctuary – we are thankful to you all and now also to the firefighters who did, indeed, protect the dream.

Foxie hug Dora on climbing structure

We were thrilled to see Foxie scale that post today and even more thrilled that her accomplishment made it on TV! Every day there’s some new step that the chimps take or new discovery that they make – that’s what sanctuary is all about.

Hugs and kisses

by

Burrito was a bit nervous going out on Young’s Hill today- most likely because before Friday, due to the Taylor Bridge Fire, the chimps hadn’t been out there in nearly three weeks. As soon as he got out there, he stood bipedally and his hair was pilo erect (standing on end), both signs that he was a bit worked up or aroused. But Foxie and Missy both reassured him that everything was safe.

Burrito trying to steal a hug from Foxie, who was walking by right after the door to the hill was opened:

who then hugged him back as a way to calm him down. If you look closely at the photo, you can see that Burrito is fear grimacing (aka- showing all of his teeth. This facial expression looks much like a human smile, but is usually a sign of fear or intense excitement).

Still a bit nervous, he approached Missy with a bent wrist. A bent wrist is a submissive gesture and often an effective way to gain reassurance from a more dominant individual. He has a large fear grimace in this photo.

Later, seeing that Burrito was still nervous, Missy approached him, breathy panted and gave him an open mouth kiss, again letting him know that all was okay.

He eventually settled down and got busy doing what he does (and loves) best- foraging for chow.

Fun on the hill

by

The chimps seem to be spending a little bit more time on the hill lately, despite the super hot weather we’ve been having. Today, when I opened the door for Young’s Hill, everyone went right out. It’s still awesome to see all seven chimps out there at once. Here are a few random good photos from the last couple of days.

Burrito chomping on some grass by the treat rock:

I am completely in love with the new bouncy bridge! We haven’t seen any wild games of chase on it yet, but the chimps seem to like it.

Foxie:

Jamie:

Bouncy Bridge!

by

The other day, volunteers from the Boy Scout Troop 336 from Federal Way finished up a fun bouncy bridge (I can speak from experience because Jackie and I just had to, for safety reasons of course, test it out. There is no video of that, however). The video we have is a combination of footage we took from the chimp house and also the chimps’ view from the GoPro camera. Thanks so much to the Boy Scouts for putting this together! I can’t wait to see wild games of chase on the bouncy bridge.

More on brave Burrito

by

Burrito is often intimidated by new things, so while we all had high hopes, we never really expected him to explore Young’s Hill all too much (fun fact: almost ALL the caregivers wore Burrito shirts on day one of letting the chimpanzees out onto the hill. That was not planned– but a great way to cheer him on apparently, as he went right out when the door was opened!). He has completely surprised all of us and is surprisingly comfortable out there, though has never ventured too far away from the safety of the greenhouse. But as Diana mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, Burrito spent some significant time out there foraging and exploring areas we haven’t seen him explore yet, including the bamboo and the furthest climbing structure. The interesting thing is that Jamie was the one leading the way for him! While I wouldn’t call them enemies, I also wouldn’t call them the best of friends either. Jamie often picks on Burrito and treats him like her annoying little brother, so it was really nice to see that yesterday Jamie decided to treat him like a buddy.

Happiness on the hill

by

Missy was such a goof when I opened the door to Young’s Hill this morning! She ran right out (and lots of folks followed her) and went up to the new climbing structure in the bamboo.

After sitting there for a little while, she decided to get a better view of the hill:

And then goofiness with her best friend Annie ensued

More on the new structures

by

As I mentioned the other day, Ben Parks and Boy Scout Troop 336 from Federal Way worked with J.B. last weekend building new climbing structures on Young’s Hill. I also mentioned that we got some GoPro footage, however, unfortunately there were some technical difficulties with the file and the videos were lost. We did get some footage with our camera though. Thanks again Ben and Boy Scout Troop 336!